HRT: Flawed, but still beneficial

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An osteoporosis expert has resigned from the Committee on Safety of Medicines over its recommendation that HRT should no longer be prescribed for thinning bones because it doubles the risk of breast cancer. He insists it is safe. What should women believe?

LAST WEEK’S warning by the Committee on Safety of Medicines that women should not use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to prevent the onset of the bone disease osteoporosis comes at a time when the weather ensures that this condition is already uppermost in many doctors’ minds.

The committee’s warning was based on the Million Women Study on HRT, which found that long-term use of the combined oestrogen and progestogen treatment — the most common form of HRT — can double the risk of developing breast cancer, and raise the risk of cancers of the womb lining and ovaries. However, the